Ada and Vincent, 2023
Information about the artwork
- MaterialOil on canvas
- Dimensions152 x 213 cm
- Year of acquisitionGift of the artist 2023
- Inventory numberUAB 1337
- On viewCurrently not exhibited
- Copyright© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn [2024], Photo: Haydar Koyupinar, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich
More about the artwork
Even at the age of 96, Alex Katz is still an enormously productive artist, as proven by the more recent of his two donations, “Ada and Vincent.”. There are 65 years between the painting from 2023 and the 1958 portrait of George Ortman. The presented works bridge the gap between his early and late work, allowing an examination of aesthetic and thematic leitmotifs throughout his career spanning over 70 years. In his portraits, Katz focuses on subjects from his immediate surroundings: family members (especially his wife Ada), artist friends, but also scenes of social interaction. The paintings offer a glimpse into Katz’s close family environment and are also contemporary documents of the social and artistic milieu of Downtown New York in the 1950s.
While in his early portraits, his models often stood or acted as whole figures in front of monochrome backgrounds, in his later portraits Katz often zooms in on the faces, as the double portrait “Ada and Vincent” vividly demonstrates. Here, the artist creates depth through shaded areas and light reflections, while contours overlap like stencils. A diagonal dividing line splits the background into a dark and a light area, echoing the colors of Ada and Vincent’s clothing. Ada’s aging process is visibly transferred into the painting through her graying hair in a way that is both sensitive and graceful.
